Conventional cleaning products for surgical waste management systems typically include highly corrosive industrial cleaning agents because bio-film growth on surgical waste containers is often impervious to conventional enzymatic cleaning solutions or simple detergent cleaning solutions and compositions. Such highly corrosive cleaning agents rely on strong detergents using both acidic and alkaline components that are often corrosive to metal and non-metal surfaces of the waste management system equipment.
Even with the use of such strong detergents, extensive manual scrubbing of such surfaces may be necessary to dislodge the bio-film adhered to the surfaces. Unfortunately, some areas of the waste management canisters are inaccessible for adequate scrubbing and thus leave behind untreated surfaces.
Furthermore, some of the acidic and alkaline components of the cleaning agents are incompatible with disinfectant cleaning agents and may create hazardous liquid and gaseous byproducts in waste discharge plumbing drains and trap assemblies. Accordingly, what is needed is non-corrosive rinsing and soaking solutions that are effective to penetrate bio-films on waste management system surfaces and mobilize and denature entrained protein, lipid complexes, and bacterial residue for removal from the system surfaces. The rinse and soak solutions should also be relatively environmentally friendly so that disposal of the solutions does not create additional hazards.
With regard to the foregoing needs, the disclosure provides a method for effectively cleaning surgical waste management equipment. The method includes rinsing surfaces of the equipment with water to remove water soluble contaminants and waste material. A rinse solution is then applied to the surfaces of the equipment to provide a residual barrier film thereon. The rinse solution includes a first nonionic nonylphenol surfactant having an HLB value ranging from about 10 to about 15, a second nonionic nonylphenol surfactant having an HLB value ranging from about 16 to 20, optionally, a bio-film permeation agent; and an aqueous solvent. A total amount of the first surfactant and the second surfactant in the solution ranges from about 2 to about 20 percent by weight of a total weight of the solution. The solution also has a ratio of the second surfactant to the first surfactant that ranges from about 2:1 to about 4:1.
An advantage of the compositions and methods described herein is that the compositions are not highly corrosive, and do not rely on the use of enzymatic agents which are highly sensitive to alkaline or acid components used in conventional cleaning solutions and to rinse water temperatures. Furthermore, the compositions provide a residual detergent barrier film that may be effective to prevent odor causing bacteria coupled with protein and lipid complexes from attaching to cleaned surfaces. Conventional cleaning solutions may be effective on either waste protein structures or on waste lipid structures, but may not be effective on both. However, the compositions described in more detail herein may be effective as a cleaning agent for both protein-based and lipid-based structures on a surface. The compositions described herein do not promote the attachment of bacterial, protein, lipid, and/or odorous compounds to the cleaned surfaces. Other advantages may be apparent from the following detailed description.